


Joint Custody

by bachelorgirl



Category: High School Musical
Genre: M/M, post-HSM3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-08
Updated: 2009-02-08
Packaged: 2017-10-14 20:03:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/152942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bachelorgirl/pseuds/bachelorgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ryan comes to visit Chad at U of A. Nothing happens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Joint Custody

Ryan rolled over and pushed himself quietly out of bed. Even after a night of drinking -- enough that his blood alcohol level probably got as high as most of the beverages he'd been drinking -- he was still up and ready to go just after the ass crack of dawn and he was getting ansty. He set Chad's phone to silent before he fired off a quick text message from his own with one hand as he fished around through his bag for his jogging clothes with the other.

'Gone for a run. Be back in a few. Don't wait up. :)'

He pulled on a pair of workout pants and a t-shirt. Brushing the moss from his teeth, he filled a cup with water and found a bottle of Aleve by the sink. He placed both of these things next to the bed and tiptoed slowly out of the room.

He was genuinely surprised that there was someone else in the kitchen, similarly dressed for a morning of running. "Ryan, right?" she asked, grabbing a bottle of water out of the fridge, motioning to him.

He nodded, both in response to her question about his name and the offered bottle of water.

She tossed the water at him. "Lisa. Long-suffering girlfriend of Adam," she clarified before taking a sip.

"Lisa, right. Sorry," Ryan knew that he'd learned her name, and he possibly even met her the last time he was in town. And, Chad had talked about her some, so he felt badly that he hadn't remembered her. Adam, one of Chad's frat brothers, was an awesome guy. He'd been talking last night about Lisa. Ryan figured that she probably wasn't supposed to know that last night Adam had been drunkenly rambling about going shopping for an engagement ring, so he probably shouldn't ask her if she was serious about the 'suffering'. He smiled at her. "I knew that. Or, at least, I did. Once."

She shrugged. "Its fine. There are, like, 25 interchangeable blondes and brunettes to keep track of around here and there's kind of a revolving door around this place sometimes. No one expects you to keep us all straight. You, however, have the distinction of being the token frat house boytoy," she smiled.

He smiled. "That's me. Blazing trails. In addition to winning friends and influencing people wherever I go."

She pet him lightly on the arm and she wandered across the kitchen. "Oh, honey, you may be the only current one, but you're definitely not the first."

Ryan quirked an eyebrow at her. "Oh?"

"Well, drunken shenganigans will happen, so yeah, sometimes the people who walk through the revolving door are boys," she looked over at him and whispered conspiratorially. "Don't tell anyone I just said that. But, Kevin, who was the president here last year and he was on the basketball team, too basically moved his boyfriend into the frat house the second he became president. He pretty much desensitized the entire frat to seeing two naked men stumble out of the shower."

"Was that a request?" Ryan laughed and tossed his empty water bottle in with the recycling.

She laughed. "Only if you're offering. Going for a run?"

Ryan nodded. "Well, I was going to try. I don't know the U of A campus all that well, so it might not end up being all that successful. I could end up back in New York if I take a wrong turn somewhere, but I was going to give it a shot."

"Want company? I promise to get you back here in one piece and it might even be fun."

"Love some. Lead on." Ryan motioned towards the door.

The run was long and Lisa, who was apparently on the U of A track team, if her t-shirt and endurance were anything to go by, kept him on his toes.

"You've known Chad long?" She asked Ryan, as they rounded the corner down between what appeared to be two dorms.

"Since middle school? My family's always had a house in Albuquerque, but we didn't live here full time until 6th grade. He was stuck with me at school ever since then."

"And, when did you start playing naked twister?"

Ryan sputtered. "Um... that's kinda complicated. But, officially? Like, November?"

"You don't sound so sure of that."

Ryan smiled. "Oh, that's the part that I'm sure of. It's the parts before that where the definition gets a little fuzzy."

"Took a while to get out of the gate, huh?"

"Complicated. There were some... misunderstandings. And general obliviousness."

"Troy, right? I heard they had a really messy breakup." She said it like there was a story there and she knew the whole thing.

"Troy?"

She gasped at him and threw her hands over her mouth. "Did you not know about him?"

Ryan laughed but composed himself very quickly so he could put Lisa out of her misery. He shook his head. "Troy's his best friend. Since, like, they were fetuses," he motioned with his head that he was going to take the next left. "They did kind of break up, but it was a friendship breakup. And, they're better now. And, he's basically married. To a girl." That was pretty much all of a clarification that Ryan could muster before dissolving into giggles. Sure, even back in high school when he'd been interested, he still couldn't have brought himself to be jealous of Troy. Taylor, on the other hand, was a whole different story. One that he has decided that he's never telling anyone. Ever.

"Don't worry," he assured her. "There were just a few false starts, is all. Troy's not a sore spot. You're allowed to use the T word in normal conversation. Neither of us will get our hackles up. However, if you're in the room with my sister, I would suggest that you don't bring him up. That's not just a sore spot, it's a gaping wound."

"Duly noted. So, what dragged you out of bed this morning? I would have thought that you would have been joining everyone else in sleeping the morning away. Don't tell me that you're watching your waistline and I need to lump you in with the rest of the frat girlfriends."

Ryan smiled. "Guilty."

"Ryan. I am so disappointed in you." She shook her head.

Ryan had to laugh as he slowed to a stop, stretching out a kink in his shoulder. "Hey, I can't help it. It's pretty much engrained in all of us the minute we showed up at school. But, anyway. Not so much that I didn't notice that diner we passed ealier and I could really go for some bacon and eggs. And a strawberry milkshake. What do you say? My treat. As long as you promise not to tell my dance instructor."

He held out his hand to her.

"Deal. And, next time we'll go for smoothies. That might be more on the Julliard-approved nutrition guide," She paused. He was fairly sure that there was surprise written all over his face. "Oh, Chad might have mentioned you go there. Once or twice. A week."

~ * ~ * ~

Just as he'd figured, when they'd arrived back at the frat house, Chad was still sleeping. There was evidence that Chad had, in fact, actually made it out of bed at some point during Ryan's absence - an empty water glass and the fact that Chad's toothbrush had somehow transported itself out of the bathroom and onto the nightstand. He tossed Chad's breakfast in the mini-fridge for later and climbed back into bed.

Chad stirred and rolled over and looked at him through a single, barely-open eye. "You went for a run."

Ryan nodded.

"I hate you." Chad buried his face into the blankets.

Ryan grinned. "I could leave."

He pushed himself off of the bed like he was going to leave and Chad's arm shot out and grabbed Ryan. "Like hell. I only get you for another two hours before your sister comes and hijacks you. Don't even think about it."

Ryan smiled stupidly and let himself be pulled back into bed and all but blanketed by Chad who had climbed on top of him and buried his face into Ryan's neck. It was times like these that Ryan had to mentally start listing all of the reasons he was getting back on the plane and going to New York on Sunday night. Why he _wanted_ to get back on the plane. It was also times like these when Ryan had the hardest time coming up with more than one reason. He usually got stuck after "Scholarship." And, which his brain then helpfully reminded him, was a scholarship that he didn't need and his parents could totally afford a second tuition at the U of A.

Although, right now, Chad's hand was sneaking up under the hem of his shirt and he was fairly certain that he couldn't even spell the word scholarship, let alone figure out why it was important to him.

"So I went for a run with Lisa. We went for breakfast." Ryan tried to keep his voice even, breathing steadily while he tried not to focus directly on the way Chad's fingertips were stroking along his stomach.

"Lisa..." Chad said, like was thinking about it while he kissed the side of Ryan's neck. "Adam's girlfriend. She's cool. And hot. Should I be jealous? Adam should definitely be jealous."

Ryan bit Chad's lower lip lightly and slid his hand down and grabbed Chad's ass. He felt Chad's hand come up and tangle in the hair at the back of his head. He was pretty sure that answer would suffice.

"She told me about Kevin. Did you know him?"

Chad nodded and kissed the skin below Ryan's ear. "He had one semester left when I got here. He was cool."

"She also mentioned that this Kevin fellow was full of really great ideas."

"Oh?" Chad looked up for a second and cocked an eyebrow.

Ryan scooted himself off the bed and held out his hand to Chad. Chad let himself be pulled, pulling the bedsheet along with him when he realized that Ryan was headed for the bedroom door.

They stopped three or four times between Chad's bedroom and the bathroom at the end of the hall, occasionally for Chad to help Ryan discard a random article of clothing, and sometimes just to pause to make out in the middle of the empty hallway.

Ryan dragged Chad into the bathroom and made certain to jack up the heat and lock the door before shoving Chad towards the shower.

~ * ~ * ~

"You know Sharpay is going to be here in, like, 30 seconds to pick me up. We're going shopping and I'm not really sure that this outfit would meet the Sharpay standards of acceptable. In fact, I don't even know if she would consider it acceptable lounging around the house attire, let alone acceptable for being seen in public." He looked down at the plain white t-shirt he was holding in his hand and motioned to the jeans he was wearing that were sliding dangerously low on his hips, unsurprising, since they were actually Chad's.

"Well, she's not here yet and I can't think how you could possibly look any hotter. At least not as long as clothes have to be involved." Ryan felt himself flush from the tips of his ears to the tips of his toes. He had to admit that he still wasn't used to hearing Chad, or anyone, talk that way. About him.

Okay, sure. He was a good-looking guy. He knew that. He also knew that the endless hours of dance rehearsal had been good for his body fat percentage. And his ass. But, it was nice to hear it from someone who had known him back when he wasn't as perfectly sculpted as he was now and knew him with his clothes on and whose sole goal wasn't to take them off.

Okay, there was a lot of time spent naked when they were together, so Chad's frat brothers probably had the wrong idea about that. But, proportionally speaking, the very nature of a long distance relationship meant that there was a lot more non-naked time between the two of them than most people their age probably had to put up with. They deserved a lot of naked time when they were finally in the same time zone. But, still. Chad telling him that he thought he was hot? Not getting old any time soon.

Ryan grinned as he went to pull the t-shirt on over his head. Without even looking down, Chad pulled the t-shirt from his hand and slipped his hand into the waistband of Ryan's jeans and hauled him over. He slipped his hand into the back pocket of the jeans and kissed him so hard Ryan knew his lips were going to be bruised. "Dude you're so not putting clothes on until someone insists." Chad hooked his fingers through the belt loops on Ryan's jeans and pulled Ryan flush against him. "That person is not going to be me. Just so we're clear."

He kept his fingers hooked through the belt loops and pulled Ryan with him as he stumbled backwards across the room and onto the bed. Ryan laughed into his mouth and let himself be pulled along.

They landed roughly on the bed and Ryan felt their teeth clack together and he started to laugh. He stopped laughing, however, when Chad used his teeth and tongue to silence him. He felt Chad's leg wrap around his leg and Chad's fingers press against his back. Ryan buried both of his fists in Chad's shower-damp hair and pressed Chad back into the bed, letting the weight of his hips keep him back against the mattress. He had just felt Chad's hands slip beneath the waistband of his pants when he heard a knock on the door. Lifting his head to answer the knock, he felt his head be pulled back and found himself being thoroughly kissed.

"Ignore them," Chad whispered against his mouth. "They'll go away."

The knocking continued. "Danforth? You in there?"

Ryan didn't recognize the voice, but evidently Chad did. "Kinda busy in here Drew." He kissed Ryan again. "Unless the house is on fire or someone is bleeding to death, I don't really want to hear it."

Ryan buried his head in Chad's shoulder, inhaling the scent of his soap and shampoo, as he felt Chad reaching for the buttons at the front of his pants. At the same time, he heard the door to the room open.

"Drew, serio--" Chad stopped short, glancing over Ryan's shoulder.

"Oh my god. Ryan Evans put some clothes on. I seriously do not need to see this." Ryan didn't have to turn around. It's not like his sister didn't have the world's most distinctive shriek.

He heard the sound of her heels on the floor and buried his head in the blankets. Looking his sister in the eye was not high on the list of things he wanted to do at this exact moment. Chad, for his part, had still not relinquished his hold on Ryan's belt loops, so he really couldn't have moved, even if he'd wanted to.

"Sharpay, couldn't you come back in like an hour. Or four?" Chad apparently had no qualms about looking his sister in the eye. "Seriously. This joint custody thing sucks."

Ryan felt the two of them being pelted with articles of clothing that Sharpay had obviously started pulling out of Chad's chest of drawers at random.

Ryan finally pushed himself up until he was kneeling on the bed and looked at his sister. "Couldn't you have called before you came over like, you know, like a normal person?"

"Ryan. It's 1:37. I told you I would be here at 1:30. I waited downstairs for five minutes. We're shopping today, in case you'd forgotten."

"Shar. I wasn't really looking at the clock just now." Ryan gestured between he and Chad and their relative lack of clothing.

She just crossed her arms and tapped her toe on the floor loudly. Waiting. Ryan could swear he could _hear_ her glaring at him.

Beside him, Chad pushed himself up and handed Ryan a t-shirt. It was dark purple and Ryan thought it might be the only t-shirt that Chad owned that didn't have some sort of slogan on the front.

Ryan pulled the t-shirt on over his head and smoothed the front. He adjusted the front of his jeans, making sure all of the buttons were still buttoned, and he slipped on the pair of sandals that were lying on the floor beside Chad's bed.

"You are _not_ going out in public dressed like a homeless person, Ryan."

Ryan looked down at his ensemble. Sure, the t-shirt was plain, but it was just the right size to be just less than one size too small and show off his well-earned lean figure. The jeans were Chad's, but Ryan had actually been allowed to pick them out and, while they were slightly big on him, they were a really nice cut. The shoes, well, the shoes had probably seen better days but they were worn in and really comfortable and Ryan was going to put his foot down. If there was someone who would actually be affected by him using his footwear as a form of protest about being dragged away from his half-naked boyfriend, it was Sharpay.

"Well, Shar, this is pretty much as good as it's going to get, so take it or leave it. Otherwise," he motioned around the room and pulled his white newsboy cap off of the nightstand and settled it on his head. He kneeled on the bed and took a minute to check his reflection in the mirror and make sure the hat was adjusted appropriately before he turned around. "I'm sure I can find something some way to occupy myself for the rest of the afternoon."

Sharpay rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. She walked across the room and, with a loud huff, she wrapped her perfectly manicured fingers around his forearm and pulled Ryan off the bed.

Ryan smiled and let himself be pulled by his sister.

He looked back over at Chad who was leaning back on the bed, propped up on his elbows wearing the same basketball shorts he'd been wearing earlier, a black t-shirt that he'd pulled from the pile Sharpay had thrown at them, and a satisfied smirk. "It's true. We're very good at entertaining ourselves." He nodded at Sharpay who just made a disgusted face at the both of them.

"Please. Don't elaborate. I'm sure I could figure it out if I wanted to use my imagination. Which, I don't."

Chad laughed. "Go. Just, bring him back when you're done. So, you're going to be, what? 8? 9 hours, tops?"

Ryan grinned over at him. "Give or take. I'll give you a call when I'm on my way back, yeah?"

Chad nodded. "This joint custody shit blows, dude. Just remind your sister that you're mine after 10pm until-- "

"Noon tomorrow, Danforth. Not 12:07. Or 12:02. Noon." Sharpay interrupted.

"Noon." Chad nodded as he reached up, tangled is fingers in Ryan's t-shirt and pulled him down for a kiss.

It was then that Ryan noticed the t-shirt that Chad was wearing. Long-sleeved and black with white letters and actually one that he hadn't made himself. It was the first t-shirt that Ryan had bought when he'd gone to New York City to look around and get ready a few weeks before school started. It was from the Julliard bookstore and Ryan was a little ashamed to admit that he'd worn it for pretty much an entire week straight when he'd gotten back to Albuquerque.

Now that he'd thought about it, he wasn't sure that he'd seen it since at least the second week of February, but he'd chalked it up to losing it in the bottom of the never-ending pile of laundry that he never actually managed to get to the bottom of. Apparently, it had somehow migrated to Albuquerque.

Ryan smile and kissed Chad quickly. "See you later, 'kay?"

Chad nodded.

Ryan winked. "Nice shirt, Danforth."

"You know it, Evans." Chad tossed a pillow at Ryan and Ryan could see him laughing and settling back against the bed as he was pulled out of the bedroom. As he pulled the door closed behind him, he could hear Sharpay grumbling about having to make an emergency stop at Steve Madden and something about exfoliating. Ryan couldn't be sure, exactly. He wasn't really listening.


End file.
